Slimming drug: Doctors warned off after links to suicide

Doctors across Europe are finally being warned off prescribing the ‘wonder’ slimming drug Acomplia after it has been found to cause serious psychiatric problems, even resulting in suicide.

The drug was approved in the UK in June this year following a big marketing campaign that saw it championed on the front pages of several UK national newspapers.

But drug regulators were always concerned that the drug might cause depression, and doctors were advised not to prescribe it to patients who were already taking anti-depressants.

Now the European Medicines Agency has issued a warning to doctors to stop prescribing the drug, which has the generic name of rimonabant.

Because of the increased risk of suicide, America’s drug regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has never granted approval to Acomplia.

(Source:  BBC, October 23, 2008).